Tanya Prewitt-White, left, and her husband, Courtney White, exit the Blue Line on Sunday night. Another passenger, Jack Stankovic, took the photo after seeing the couple quietly slip money into a disabled man's bag. The picture and story have gone viral on social media.

Tanya Prewitt-White, left, and her husband, Courtney White, exit the Blue Line on Sunday night. Another passenger, Jack Stankovic, took the photo after seeing the couple quietly slip money into a disabled man's bag. The picture and story have gone viral on social media. (Jack Stankovic)

Picture of couple who slipped money to man on the "L" goes viral with more than 60,000 Facebook shares

Courtney White and his wife, Tanya Prewitt-White, were riding the Blue Line home from O'Hare on Sunday night when they noticed a man who appeared to be homeless, sleeping in his wheelchair.

The couple were returning from Alabama, where they had attended Courtney's grandmother's funeral. They both noticed the man and were moved to offer him some help.

"We were getting off at Irving Park, and I had grabbed some money to give him," Prewitt-White, 33, told me Thursday. "My husband had the same idea, so he already had money out to give him. I handed my additional money to my husband, and he just slipped it all into the gentleman's bag, and we walked off."

Jack Stankovic, a Chicagoan riding the Blue Line to meet a friend for dinner, witnessed the random act of kindness and snapped a photo of the couple as they were exiting the train. He posted it to Facebook with the following note:

"Please share.

"These 2 people must be put on blast. I am on the #blueline heading towards the city when I spot something rare and sometimes unheard of. There was a disabled homeless man in a wheelchair sleeping, this guy in the picture reached over and slipped some money into the homeless man's bag. No one else noticed but me. This wasn't spare change, and the homeless man wasn't bother or asking for anything from anyone. This couple got off at the #irvingpark station. Thank you sir for reestablishing my faith in humanity. You sir are a true gentleman. #cta #goodsamaritan #karma let's all share and thank this guy and his girl."

Courtney White, 42, has received Facebook messages from the Ukraine and London. Friends from California have reached out with virtual high-fives. White's co-workers at Downers Grove North, where he's the physical education department chair, have shared the moment with their school community.

"We were just trying to pay it forward," said Prewitt-White, a sport and health psychology professor at Adler University. "My husband and I talk about this all the time — about our own self-righteousness, about how it's easier to become hardened and not make eye contact or smile at people who appear homeless because then you don't have to look pain and suffering in the face. It's definitely been a journey for the two of us."

Stankovic, who was scheduled to leave for Europe the day after he posted the photo, told me through email that he is shocked by the reaction.

"I had no idea it would get as big as it has," he wrote. "I know they weren't looking for recognition, but people like them should be praised."

He has received more than 400 friend requests since posting the photo.

"I posted the picture because, at the time, everyone on the train was heads-down on their phones," he wrote. "We see so much negativity on a daily basis on social media. If we only took the time to look at our surroundings, we would see the positive things happening around us. We, as a society, talk about change, but rarely do we act on it. The picture symbolizes action."

Once the social media community identified the Whites, Stankovic reached out to Courtney through Facebook to tell him that after the couple exited the train, Stankovic woke the man up to tell him about the money.

"I didn't want him to pull his water bottle out and drop (the money)," he wrote to me. "I stepped off and stood on the platform and watched through the window. He had this look on his face like, 'Why?' Confused why anyone would do that. You can't put into words the feeling I had that day. It's like everything was right in the world for a brief moment."

Prewitt-White appreciates the accolades but says she's just doing her part to ease a few people's burdens.

"I have a resolution to take a homeless person to eat once a week," she told me. "My husband and I both feel like, you know, we have full-time jobs. We're not in the top 10 percent or anything, but we're able to give, and we should."

Here's where I confess that I know Prewitt-White. We met in the spring through one of her Adler colleagues, and we meet once a month to talk about our writing over coffee.

Last week, we were having coffee at Toni Patisserie in the Loop when a man walked in asking for coffee. Prewitt-White hopped up and took him to the counter and told him to pick whatever he wanted to eat, plus a coffee.

Two minutes later, she was back at our table. "It's a resolution of mine," she explained. Then waved away any praise I was about to offer.

And now she's receiving that praise times 60,000.

I'm proud to know her. And I'm grateful that, despite our flaws and inequities, this world still embraces and celebrates kindness when we see it.